Contentstack just hired an ex-Adobe exec as CMO. Here’s why it matters

Gurdeep Dhillon has some thoughts on “professional references.”

Just after announcing his new gig as Chief Marketing Officer at Contentstack – a composable digital experience platform – he penned a brief but heartfelt post on LinkedIn, thanking friends and colleagues who vouched for his street creds in pursuit of this position.

“What a wonderful thing it is to have people in your professional life that have become more than just colleagues,” he said, marveling at how a bench of business associates had evolved into friendships and advocates. People who have your back (and vice-versa). 

As Gurdeep noted, it’s important for future employers to have access to these sources to make informed decisions. Testaments to quality of work are table stakes, but hearing about the character of a candidate is gold. This is where the value of deeper connections and the oft-neglected practice of developing good relationships can’t be overstated.

Even at a cursory glance, it’s safe to say that Gurdeep is a people person. That should serve him well in a role that’s all about scaling software users (people, n'est-ce pas?) by strengthening brand awareness, preference, and loyalty. 

With two decades of enterprise software experience under his belt, Gurdeep is reaching for the stars at Contentstack, buoyed by previous roles at some of the world’s most recognized technology companies like SAP, Marketo, and Adobe. Heavy hitters to be sure.

Gurdeep will report to Contentstack’s founder and CEO, Neha Sampat, who has shepherded the headless-CMS-turned-DXP to incredible heights – raising a total of $169 million (thus far). From an evolutionary perspective, the company has recently been added to the Forrester Wave for DXPs, further cementing its expansion as a composable platform with a multitude of offerings. 

"Gurdeep is a great fit for our Contentstack tribe, both in expertise and values alignment," she said. “He understands the industry, and what it takes to capitalize on opportunity, and lead category creation. He knows digital experiences are the new competitive frontline for brands. Best yet, he is well regarded for his leadership style and ability to bring teams together to do the best work of their lives.”

I had an opportunity to relay a few questions to the new Marketer-in-Chief as he takes the reins. Contentstack has certainly blazed trails over the last few years, but market conditions have shifted, along with the topology of the DX landscape. The game is evolving, and we're all strapping in – waiting for the next drop of the coaster. 

Gurdeep had some great insight on what’s ahead, the still-emerging value of composable, and how the role of the CMO is transforming. I also have some reflections on what this move means for Contentstack and the market at large. 

A proven legacy of leadership

Gurdeep’s work history reads like a “who’s who” of tech mammoths (the aforementioned Adobe, among others). But he’s also made his impact felt with brands that are key players in their respective industries but necessarily household names. 

Case in point: during his most recent CMO tenure at Zuora – a monetization software suite spanning pricing and packaging, billing, payments, and more – Gurdeep helped usher the company into the next phase of "The Subscription Economy" (more on that in a bit). He’s also lending an advisory shoulder to platforms like AudiencePlus and Goldcast, which gives him a more well-rounded view of the tech and business landscape. 

Like most of us, Gurdeep hasn’t gotten to the top of his game alone, and has consistently built and nurtured high-performing teams to deliver success. In his three-year tenure in Adobe's Digital Experience business as a leader of both the Marketo and Magento marketing organizations, he gained expertise – and empathy – for marketing and commerce leaders who are responsible for driving efficient growth. 

With a resume of this magnitude, Gurdeep could have the pick of the litter in a landscape of opportunities. I asked what attracted him to Contentstack, and how those attributes might play into his strategy for positioning the brand in a market of one.

“For me, it was seeing the breadth and depth of iconic brands that are achieving the art of the possible through their adoption of Contentstack’s Composable DXP,” he explained. “It’s clear to me that Contentstack stands alone in terms of our position as the only Composable Platform player in this space. The spectrums that matter are monolithic versus composable and product versus platform. Contentstack wins on both.”

Cutting through the composable clutter

As Gurdeep takes the marketing helm at a leading “composable DXP,” I wanted his perspective on the hotly-debated term. Over the last six months, I’ve tracked growing confusion across the landscape from buyers evaluating the field, but particularly from those who are trying to decipher the coded messaging. Where’s the differentiation when everyone claims to be composable?

As platforms “race to the middle” – something I’ve spoken about frequently and discussed with Deane Barker at the CMS Kickoff – vendors on both sides (composable headless and "traditional" composed DXPs) are evolving to meet the needs of customers. For Contentstack, how can marketing help lead the charge? 

“I’ve been thinking a lot lately about a Brand Relevancy Crisis that both B2B and B2C companies are facing,” Gurdeep said. “There’s a big onus on marketing teams to ensure they are delivering exceptional content and experiences to their audiences. You need a composable DXP to do that right.”

“Our customers have the flexibility and freedom to build their stack their way. That’s the power of composable.”

There’s no question that companies are under pressure to perform, especially in a digital economy where it’s crowded and noisy – and loyalty can prove elusive. Likewise, marketing teams are feeling equitable pressure to deliver results, and Gurdeep believes a composable DXP like Contentstack is the answer. 

“I think there’s still a ton of education that needs to be done, showing people what the future could look like and highlighting the changemakers that are leading the way. I see an opportunity to do this better.”

Following the MACH momentum

Full disclosure: as a member of the MACH Alliance Executive Advisory Board, I'm keeping a constant pulse on the composable movement. I believe in the tenets of open systems and love the idea of swappable standards. So while we're all helping to better define composability from an industry perspective, I endeavor to provide a balanced and unbiased of how these trends are impacting the market. 

Given Contentstack’s undeniable role in shaping the trajectory of the best-of-breed member ecosystem and its advocacy of open technology standards, I was curious how Gurdeep viewed the Alliance’s role as an objective outsider with monolithic roots. 

“As a founding member of the MACH alliance, Contentstack set out to educate the market on a better way to build digital experiences alongside other pioneers in this space,” he said. “With the growth of this Alliance over the past four years, we’ve gone from early adopters to early majority successfully, and now it’s all about how to make it easier to do business with composable vendors and partners.”

And it’s true: Contentstack has been on the evolutionary horizon with MACH, taking a more active role to address key challenges. When I spoke to Neha Sempat in Amsterdam last June at the MACH Two event, she talked about the importance of its Composable Charter, a manifesto of guiding principles for enterprises on the composable journey – which was signed by a gaggle of platforms. 

We also discussed the creation of a first-ever accountability platform to help ensure composable stacks are properly maintained when multiple technologies can present multiple points of failure. I've heard many horror stories about out-of-control hosting bills and other issues that have emerged from composable stacks. Who's in charge when the “stuff” hits the fan?

Like many of the members of the MACH Alliance, Contentstack is also reliant on enterprise and agency partners to build composable solutions. I asked Gurdeep how he values the channel from a scalability perspective.

“I see tremendous opportunities with SIs and Digital Agencies that specialize in composable,” he surmised. “Many are building accelerators that allow brands to adopt composable in a way that addresses change management and a lightning-fast time to value. These are game changers, especially for larger enterprises that need to start somewhere and expand from there.”

Why it matters

Composable is still the soup du jour on the DX tech menu. As noted in the recently published research from the MACH Alliance, the drift towards both the architectural and philosophical tenets of this burgeoning movement is clear, with big growth being forecast in the US. At the same time, it continues to be confusing morass as platforms try to reposition around the lexicon without alienating the market gods.

Contentstack has been carrying the mantle of “composable DXP” for quite some time, and doing it adeptly. Last year when I spoke to Dean Haddock, a senior product manager for the company’s Launch offering, it was already deep into the messaging. By December, Contentstack was a fixture on the Forrester Wave for DXPs – a testament to its brand-rattling at the analyst level. Of course, being rolled in with traditional DXPs raised a lot of questions (and maybe a modicum of ire) about the definition of a “digital experience platform” in the composable era. 

At the same time, some downstream platforms experimented with shedding their headless skin, while monoliths embraced nomenclatures like “composable hybrid headless DXP” as a mantra. It’s all adding to that morass, and precisely why top-down marketing is so critical to reinforcing the right messages and cutting through the confusion for the buyer.

The hiring of a new C-Level is also a throat-clearing moment, and Contentstack is sending a sharp signal to the market about its ambitions. By selecting someone with high-octane Adobe DNA, it’s leveling up to compete on the DXP grid with greater gusto. 

Simultaneously, things are in flux across the landscape: Sitecore just made a change at the CEO level at a time when the company’s chief investment backer is contemplating a sale. M&A activities look poised to rebound (although it’s still a wait-and-see situation). Seismic shifts in leadership are sometimes a sign that bigger moves are already in the pipeline, so we'll see how the Contentstack story evolves in 2024.

Finally, let's talk about CMOs…

Yup. They’re in the hot seat – perhaps more so than any other manager in the C-suite. They’re experiencing tighter tenures than ever before, although some move on to bigger and better things. But in a world where long games are getting shorter and shorter, CMOs live and die by the revenue sword. 

I’m not trying to be macabre or conjure Game of Thrones, but there are certain analogies about battlefields and dragons that certainly fit this job description.

I asked Gurdeep what he thought about the role of the CMO given the recent decision by Starbucks to eliminate the position from its hierarchy, choosing instead to rely on decentralized leaders in different geographical regions. I don’t think it’s a harbinger of the CMO’s demise, but how is the job changing at a time when marketing is so essential to powering growth?

“I think the role of the CMO is evolving in a few key ways,” he replied. “Now more than ever, the CMO is being held accountable to defining efficient growth strategies. This includes leaning into new technologies that help drive scale, especially generative AI. In B2B especially, CMOs are focusing more and more on customer-centricity – helping drive advocacy, retention, and ultimately expansion of the existing customer base. This is absolutely critical in an economic downturn when winning new logos is difficult for most vendors. Last but not least, CMOs are fighting the Brand Relevancy Crisis - trying to overcome the fact that there’s saturation across channels and it’s never been harder to rise above the noise, compounded by a cookie-less world and the explosion of AI-generated content.”

It’s telling that Contentstack would invest in someone with ingrained knowledge and reverence for “The Subscription Economy,” as Gurdeep referenced. It speaks to the company’s view of where things are headed: more SaaS, less friction. Elegant tools that are powered by AI and free of code. And stuff that’s truly composable and, er… integrates seamlessly (I hate even writing that phrase, but you get the dream). 

At the end of the day, a Chief Marketing Officer is more than the sum of their parts. It’s not enough to know how to wield the technology and read between the analytics. This job requires empathy, and the most successful CMOs can tune into the customer’s frequency with passion and intention and guide the right resources to convert that interest into action. 

They also need to love what they do. Seriously. You can't go into a creative leadership role like this without a corpus callosum that modulates the right modicum of creativity with an appetite for data. Given how much today's CMOs have to know, I asked Gurdeep what keeps him excited and engaged about marketing – so he can tune in accordingly. 

“I love changing people’s minds,” he said. “When you show somebody what their world could look like if they step through the door to the other side, it’s an incredible feeling. And in my opinion, the best way to do that authentically is with helpful, relevant content and experiences, built with empathy for your audience. I call it Audience Marketing and it’s absolutely shaped by my roots in content. You can’t lose if you’ve created a genuine connection with your audience over time, because when they are ready to address their challenges with a technology decision, they will almost assuredly come to you.”

Well said. And precisely why he has amazing professional references. 

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